Hi all. Firstly, apologies for making another "what should I buy" thread. I know it must come up often, but I didn't find something that was quite tailored to my criteria when I took the search function through its paces.
Almost a year ago now, my (new at the time) dog chewed up my absolutely-superb Thinksound MS01
So, since I'm going to buy new headphones, I have an easy fallback plan: get the MS01s again. But, I can't just do that. Any time it's technology-purchasing time, I have to look at options and investigate something new.
For the longest time, I've only bought IEMs. The reason for this is that they're small, easy to carry, and tend to be the most comfortable IMO. I love the isolation that they afford, and the small drivers don't require any sort of amplification (most of the time) to get their best sound. But I also know that there's not much substitute for the price/quality ratio of over-ear headphones, and so I think I need to investigate that side of things.
I'm looking around the $100 price point, give or take (since that's what the MS01s are, and seems to be a sweet spot for quality). Things I would like to have are:
Excellent sound quality with an emphasis on "natural" balance and tone; warmth in the sound is also a bonus
Good isolation (doesn't have to be active noise canceling)
Closed-back
Over-ear cans, not on-ear (on-ear always hurts after awhile)
Attractive housings (subtle styling preferred)
Doesn't require amplification
The music types that are important to me as far as sound reproduction goes are as following (descending order):
Jazz/Instrumental
Symphonic
Classic Rock
Progressive Rock
Then a mess of eclectic stuff past that.
I wish Thinksound would go ahead and move out into other form factors. A wood can housing with their audio quality would be perfect. But alas, that's not to be just yet.
Hope I had enough information, if not I'll be happy to provide some more. Thanks in advance!
Edited by cjp87 - 1/13/13 at 5:51pm
